Left to right, Petroleum Recovery Research Center Director Dr. Robert Balch, NMT Interim President Dr. Daniel H. López, and NMT Board of Regents President Jerry A. Armijo kick off the $28M expansion of Kelly Hall in down-to-earth style. 

SOCORRO, N.M. (April 11, 2024) — New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT) broke ground on a $28 million expansion of its Kelly Hall that houses the Petroleum Recovery Research Center (PRRC), a trailblazing scientific organization dedicated to solving problems related to the oil and gas industry while also providing experiential learning and related training to NMT undergraduate and graduate students.

NMT Interim President Dr. Daniel H. López, NMT Board of Regents President Jerry A. Armijo, and PRRC Director Dr. Robert Balch shoveled the ceremonial dirt at the special event held on April 10, 2024. New Mexico State Sen. Crystal Diamond Brantley (District 35) also attended, among other political dignitaries and campus officials.

The new building, expected to open late 2025, will be a two-story, 26,000 square-foot facility featuring numerous cutting-edge labs, a metal shop, office spaces, graduate student offices, and other state-of-the-art components. Funding is comprised of General Obligation Bonds, Legislative appropriations, donations, and NMT funds.

“PRRC helps private industry become more productive and is an economic driver with a $226 million research portfolio,” said NMT Interim President Dr. Lopez. “It’s a testament to the abundant good work being done” through the collaboration between PRRC and NMT.

The New Mexico State Legislature established PRRC as a research division of NMT in 1977. The site opened in 1979. PRRC’s mission is to develop, through theoretical and practical research, improved oil and natural gas recovery methods to increase oil and natural gas recovery from New Mexico’s and the nation’s oil and gas reservoirs and to transfer new technology to the industry and local independents. It’s the only research center of its kind in the state.

Additional research conducted includes membrane technology, nanotechnology, and chemical/optics sensors. PRRC is also the lead organization for the Carbon Utilization and Storage Partnership, a Dept. of Energy-funded regional initiative to accelerate onshore carbon capture and storage technology deployment in the Western region of the U.S. via a consortium of academia, government agencies, national labs, and industry.

Widespread and longstanding synergy and teamwork exist between NMT and PRRC. NMT offers the only petroleum and natural gas engineering degree program in the state. An average of 30 undergraduate and graduate students from NMT participate in front-line research with PRRC’s 27 full-time research and professional personnel each year.

“PRRC’s mission and NMT’s mission are integrated,” said PRRC Director Dr. Balch. Over the last 45 years, “We interact with bright faculty” and with “hundreds and hundreds” of talented students, he added. Plus, PRRC has produced thousands of research papers that move the field forward, he continued. “There are so many wonderful intertwined benefits to this partnership, and the expansion of the building will allow even more research and educational opportunities,” he said.

The PRRC building is named after the Kelly family, who for generations have been major NMT supporters. Patriarch John Martin Kelly, B.S. mining engineering 1936, B.S. petroleum engineering 1939, D.Sc. 1963 (Hon), held several positions in the private and public sectors, then founded independent producer Elk Oil, and later served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Mineral Resources under President John F. Kennedy from 1961-65. He also was on the NMT Board of Regents from 1975 until his death in 1977 at age 62, playing a key role in convincing state legislators to found PRRC at NMT. His widow, Esther, and their children, Mike, Joseph, Patricia, and Mary Ann, established scholarships and an endowed chair at NMT. Mike Kelly, who earned bachelor’s (1972), master’s (1996), and Ph.D. (2000) degrees in petroleum engineering at NMT, served on its Board of Regents from 1992-97 and chaired NMT’s 2001 Commitment to Excellence fundraising campaign, among other efforts.

The Kelly Hall expansion project also received major funding from John Crum, B.S. petroleum engineering 1975. A managing partner at the Houston, Texas-based JAC Energy Partners, and a retired senior vice president of Apache Oil, he co-chairs NMT’s Launching Tech to New Heights fundraising campaign and received its 2022 Philanthropist of the Year award.